From the recording The Good Ship Kangaroo
A great song first heard done by Planxty, Ireland's first super group of traditional music.
Lyrics
Once I was a waitin' man that lived at home at ease
Now I am a mariner who ploughs the angry seas
I always loved sea farin' life, I bid my love adieu
I shipped as steward and cook me boys, aboard the Kangaroo
Chorus
Oh I never thought she would prove false or even prove untrue
As we sailed away from Milford Bay aboard the Kangaroo
Think of me oh think of me she mornfully did sa
When you are in a foreign land and I am far away
Take this lucky trupenny bit, it'll make you bare in mind
That lovin trustin' faithful heart you left in tears behind
Cheer up cheer up my own true love, don't weep so bitterly
She sobbed, she sighed, she choked, she cried and could not say goodbye
I won't be gone for very long, 'tis but a month or two
When I will return again of course I'll visit you
Our ship it was homeward bound from many a foreign shore
And many's the foreign presents unto me love I bore
I brought tortoises from Tenerife and toys from Timbuktu
A China rat, a Bengal cat and a Bombay cockatoo
Paid off I sought her dwelling on a street above the town
Where an ancient dame upon the line was hanging out her gown
Where is me love, she's vanished sir about six months ago
With a smart young man that drives the van for Chapman sons and Co
Here's a health to dreams of married life, to soap suds and blue
Here's true love and patent starch and washin' soda too
I'll go unto some foreign shore, no longer can I stay
And with some China Hottentot, I'll throw meself away
My love she is no foolish girl her age it is two score
Me love she is no spinster she's been married twice before
I cannot say it was her wealth that stole me heart away
She's a washer in a laundry for one and nine a day